San Gabriel, Pasadena embrace more robust bicycle plans

SAN GABRIEL >> The City Council reviewed a proposal for a regional bike plan which lays out a blueprint for the first major network of bikeways in the city’s history.

The plan proposes adding 32.5 miles of various types of bike infrastructure in San Gabriel. The proposal includes 3.3 miles of off-street multi-use bike paths and 9.2 miles of class II bike lanes.

The proposal is part of the San Gabriel Valley Regional Bike Plan. It was developed by nonprofits Bike SGV and Day One.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Mayor John Harrington said. “San Gabriel has been very proactive in a lot of the plans we’ve been implementing and this is a great addition. ... Even if they don’t get implemented right away, if you don’t have the plan you’re building without thinking and that’s just not the way to go.”

Councilman Jason Pu cautioned that the city should first focus on fixing its streets and sewers, with the bike routes as an added bonus.

“We shouldn’t put the cart before the horse,” Pu said. “Let’s not get too focused on the icing versus the cake.”

San Gabriel was the first of the five cities to review the draft at a council study session on Tuesday. Bike SGV officials said they will present it to Monterey Park, Baldwin Park, El Monte and South El Monte, with a goal to approve the final draft by the end of October.

The plan was funded through a grant from the Healthy Eating and Active Living initiative at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Bike SGV’s Javier Hernandez said funding was unexpectedly cut and will run out in September. The new deadline gives the nonprofit time to present the plan to all the cities, but not to help implement it.

“The vision of the San Gabriel Valley Bicycle Master Plan is to create a bicycle oriented San Gabriel Valley region in which biking is safe, attractive and accessible,” Hernandez said.

Pasadena also took steps toward a more robust bicycle program this week, hosting a community meeting on a new set of bike lanes on major city streets.

At the meeting, hosted at Jackie Robinson Center on Monday night, officials shared the results of a feasibility study on cycle tracks, buffered bike lanes and bike boulevards.

The current proposal includes a possible cycle track or buffered bike lane on Washington and Orange Grove boulevards, a cycle track on Union Street, Del Mar Boulevard and Green Street, and potential buffered bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard. The majority of the proposals would involve reducing the number of lanes for cars. The study indicates that on all but Del Mar Boulevard traffic would not significantly increase.

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The city already has about 70 miles of bikeways, but few buffered bike lanes and no cycle tracks, Senior Transportation Planner Rich Dilluvio said.

“We looked at it as a positive, not a negative, that we had this opportunity,” to revamp the plan, Dilluvio said.

In addition to the city’s own bike plan, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) announced that Pasadena is one of four selected to participate in a bike share program.

“The more it’s part of the culture the more effective we can be,” said Jonathan Edewards, president of the Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association.